What The Cast Of Titanic Is Doing Today

James Cameron's megahit "Titanic" sailed into our hearts 25 years ago, in December 1997. A triumph of special effects, the film blended history with a deeply moving love story. At a budget of $200 million, "Titanic" was the most expensive motion picture in history, until Cameron topped himself with 2010's "Avatar," per USA Today. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, both in their early 20s but convincing as teens, led a cast that included Victor Garber, Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, and Billy Zane, as well as veteran actor Gloria Stuart, who gained a new generation of fans as the older, present-day Winslet character.

"Titanic" was both a box office and critical success, earning $2.2 billion worldwide (quite an achievement for a 194-minute movie) as well as 14 Oscar nominations (tying with 1950's "All About Eve"). The film won 11 Academy Awards, including best picture (tying with 1959's "Ben-Hur"). The film also won an Oscar for its chart-topping theme song "My Heart Will Go On," which remains one of Celine Dion's signature songs. Roger Ebert proclaimed the film to be "flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted and spellbinding," while The New York Times declared it "a spectacle as sweeping as the sea."

After 25 years, "Titanic" is a much loved modern-day classic. We take a look at they key players in the picture, the characters they portrayed, and where they are today.

Kathy Bates' Oscar-winning turn in 1990's "Misery" made her an instant star. By playing a brash real-life survivor, "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" — a role previously played on film by Debbie Reynolds in a 1964 musical comedy — Bates brought some comic relief to "Titanic." When reflecting on the film with Vanity Fair, Bates praised filmmaker James Cameron and costume designer Deborah Scott. "She got costumes from all over the world, like 4,000 vintage costumes. I couldn't see anything else but these people who were the background who were walking up and down and I thought, 'Holy crap, I feel like I've just walked into another time, another place,'" Bates explained. She added, "I feel very honored to have been in that film."

Bates' career has never slowed. She received three more Oscar nominations after "Misery" for her supporting roles in "Primary Colors," "About Schmidt," and "Richard Jewell," and had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom "The Office" during its 2010-2011 season. She has survived cancer twice, having successfully recovered from ovarian cancer and breast cancer, per Practical Pain Management. Bates has a handful of projects in the works, including the screen version of the popular Judy Blume novel "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" and "The Miracle Club" co-starring Maggie Smith and Laura Linney.

For over 40 years, Eric Braeden has been revered by fans of daytime television as self-made businessman Victor Newman on "The Young and the Restless," winning a Daytime Emmy Award in 1998. Braeden's authoritative demeanor was perfectly suited to playing American business magnate John Jacob Astor IV in "Titanic." When Rose introduces Jack Dawson to Astor at dinner, Astor asks, "Are you of the Boston Dawsons?" to which Jack replies, "No, the Chippewa Falls Dawsons, actually." 

Braeden initially didn't want to do the picture. "My wife and my son talked me into it," he told the Television Academy. "They said you've got to work for James Cameron. ... Long story short, James Cameron couldn't have been more charming. ... I have great respect for Cameron. He's a brilliant director, one of the most brilliant people I've ever met."

Now 81, the German-born Braeden (his birth name is Hans Gudegast) continues to act on "The Young and the Restless." In the 1970s, he guest-starred on some of the decade's most popular television series, including "The Six Million Dollar Man," "Barnaby Jones," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and "Kojak." He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. In 2017 he published a memoir, "I'll Be Damned: How My Young and Restless Life Led Me to America's #1 Daytime Drama," in which he discussed how his wife convinced him to stay with "Y&R," as well as his German background and how Hollywood made him change his name (via "CBS This Morning").

Leonardo DiCaprio was already an acclaimed actor at 22 years old when he starred in "Titanic," having delivered impressive performances in "This Boy's Life," "The Basketball Diaries," and his poignant Oscar-nominated turn as Arnie in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." His boyish good looks and innate charisma made him an ideal romantic leading man. As Jack Dawson, a struggling artist who wins a ticket on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic in a poker game, DiCaprio doesn't try to hide his matinee idol looks, yet he comes across as totally sincere, a poor boy who tries to do right by Rose, the first-class passenger he is immediately attracted to.

DiCaprio continued his streak of hits following "Titanic," amassing a total of six Oscar nominations, winning for his leading role in 2015's "The Revenant." Now in his late 40s, the never-married DiCaprio often gets more attention for his off-screen life, especially his history of dating women no older than 25 (via Insider). He has owned numerous properties but is also an outspoken advocate for environmental issues. He was named a United Nations climate change envoy in 2014. In 2017, the star participated with former vice president Al Gore in the People's Climate March in protest of then-president Donald Trump's environmental policies.

A frequent collaborator with director Martin Scorsese, DiCaprio signed on to star in the highly anticipated Western crime drama "Killers of the Flower Moon," co-starring Robert De Niro, which will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023, per Deadline.

A forgotten starlet of the 1930s, Gloria Stuart had a career resurgence as Old Rose, who recounts her romance with impoverished artist Jack aboard the doomed luxury liner. Stuart received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her performance (at age 87 she was the oldest person nominated for an acting Oscar, per The New York Times). She won the Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role in a tie with Kim Basinger for "L.A. Confidential." Stuart thought she was right for the role as soon as she read the script. "This is the frosting on the cake for me. It's the best part I've ever had, the biggest film and best film I've ever been in, the most wonderful people to work with," Stuart told interviewer Bobbie Wygant.

Stuart made her screen debut in 1932 and appeared in the horror movies "The Invisible Man" and "The Old Dark House," both directed by James Whale, and the Shirley Temple musicals "Poor Little Rich Girl" and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm." She retired from acting in 1946 to pursue painting and then returned to it in the 1970s and '80s with made-for-TV movies and small parts in feature films. Before "Titanic," her last film was in 1989, but she kept busy as a printer and book artist, eventually writing a memoir. Stuart died of respiratory failure in Los Angeles on September 26, 2010 at the age of 100, per The Guardian.

Billy Zane plays Rose's arrogant millionaire fiance Caledon Hockley, a role that earned him an MTV Movie Award nomination for best villain. "He was a little misunderstood," Zane joked about his character on "Today" in 2016. "I wasn't the iceberg! I did not drown 2,000 people!"

Zane had some experience with villainous roles. For his big screen debut, he auditioned for the role of Biff in "Back to the Future," and he was cast as Biff's buddy Match. But he pops up as the good guy sometimes, too — most notably in 1996, when he played the titular superhero in "The Phantom." Zane also appeared in a heroic role in Avril Lavigne's "Rock N Roll" music video in 2013. In 2017, the actor starred in a television ad for KFC as a gold-colored Colonel Sanders to promote the fast food chain's Georgia Gold Honey Mustard BBQ chicken. 

He is also an abstract artist who paints in between takes. "My art is similar in style to my acting — improvisational," Zane told The Guardian. "I often paint on set and then feverishly try and scrape buckets of paint off my fingers before filming." His Instagram is full of his artistic creations, and Zane's process and works may be viewed on his website.

Perhaps best known as Strawberry Alice in Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," Frances Fisher is Rose's high society widowed mother Ruth DeWitt Bukater. Fisher was a fan of the 1958 Titanic drama "A Night to Remember," so she was excited at the opportunity to appear in Cameron's film. "I probably had a little bit of understanding about 'Titanic,'" she told the A.V. Club. "But then, of course, I got all the research books when I got the role so I could understand a little bit about what was happening politically and socially in that era." Fisher felt that the period costuming and hairstyling helped her ease into the role, though it wasn't difficult for her to access Ruth at all. "I just knew this character in my bones. ... It was a transformation that came from the outside in," the actor explained.

Fisher's first credited role was on the long-running daytime drama "The Edge of Night" as Detective Deborah Saxon from 1976 to 1981. The actor was in two of Eastwood's productions; she and Eastwood were in a relationship for six years and had a daughter, Francesca, born in 1993 (per the Los Angeles Times). Fisher is among the cast members of "Rust," the Alec Baldwin Western that halted production after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was accidentally fatally shot by Baldwin on October 21, 2021. After the settlement of a wrongful death lawsuit was reached between Baldwin and Hutchins' widower, production is set to resume, per the New York Post.

Kate Winslet gained attention for her breakout performances in 1994's "Heavenly Creatures" and 1995's "Sense and Sensibility," and has since received an impressive seven Oscar nominations with one win for 2008's "The Reader." "Titanic" still remains a career-defining role for Winslet as first-class passenger Rose, whose unhappy engagement leads her to the poor but honorable Jack.

Winslet was not quite 21 when "Titanic" began shooting in 1996 (per The Washington Post), and with the film's success came an overwhelming level of fame. "The British press were actually quite unkind to me, and I felt quite bullied, if I'm honest," she said on the podcast "WTF with Marc Maron" in January 2021. The star continued, "And I remember just thinking, 'Okay well, this is horrible and I hope it passes.' It did definitely pass but it also made me realize that, if that was what being famous was, I was not ready to be famous, thank you. No, definitely not." 

Winslet reunited with Leonardo DiCaprio for 2008's "Revolutionary Road" and has appeared in "Finding Neverland" with Johnny Depp, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" with Jim Carrey, and Woody Allen's "Wonder Wheel." On television, Winslet won Emmy Awards for two HBO miniseries, "Mildred Pierce" and "Mare of Easttown." In 2012, Queen Elizabeth II made Winslet a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her services to drama, and in 2014, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Familiar to television audiences for his role as Jack Bristow on "Alias," Victor Garber is an accomplished stage actor who was nominated for four Tony Awards. Garber portrays Thomas Andrews, the humble and pragmatic builder of the RMS Titanic. Garber's key moment in the picture is when he informs the captain (Bernard Hill) that the sinking of the Titanic is inevitable. Garber credits director James Cameron for getting the best of out of him for that pivotal exchange. "He just guided me through every moment so beautifully and I felt really comfortable and was happy with that scene," Garber told AOL's BUILD Series.

The Canadian-born Garber played Jesus in the 1972 Toronto production of the musical "Godspell," which featured an ensemble of soon-to-be legendary performers, including Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, and Martin Short. On Broadway, Garber appeared in "Death Trap," "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "Noises Off," which earned him a Drama Desk Award along with the cast, 1994's "Damn Yankees," and "Hello, Dolly!" in 2018. He's stayed busy with TV dramas in 2022, simultaneously starring in "Family Law" and recurring on "The Orville."

Garber is close friends with his "Alias" co-star Jennifer Garner. He and his husband, Rainer Andreesen, were the only guests at Garner's 2005 wedding to Ben Affleck on the Turks and Caicos, which Garber officiated. "It was an incredible honor and one of the most special events of my life," Garber said of the ceremony when speaking with Entertainment Weekly. "I will never forget it. It's embedded in my heart."

A likable and rugged actor, Bill Paxton appeared in numerous hit films, including "Aliens," "Twister," "Apollo 13," "A Simple Plan," and the acclaimed indie "One False Move." In "Titanic," Paxton plays Brock Lovett, the present-day treasure hunter who is the audience for Old Rose's retelling of her story. 

Paxton died on Feb. 25, 2017 at age 61 from a stroke 11 days after surgery "to replace a heart valve and correct an aortic aneurysm," according to People. The day after his death, Jennifer Aniston paid tribute to Paxton on the 89th Academy Awards broadcast before introducing the annual In Memoriam segment, per The Hollywood Reporter News. In a nod to his role in "Twister," Paxton also received tributes from storm chasers via the Spotter Network using various coordinates to spell out his initials. Many of Paxton's colleagues also remembered him. Tom Hanks tweeted, "Bill Paxton was, simply, a wonderful man." "He was a good friend and had a huge heart," said Ginnifer Goodwin (via ET), who played Paxton's wife on the HBO series "Big Love."

Paxton's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Hospital and the heart surgeon who operated on him, claiming the surgeon employed a "high risk and unconventional surgical approach" that wasn't required. The suit further claimed the doctor minimized potential risks and did not have the appropriate experience to perform the procedure, per the New York Post. The family settled the suit for an undisclosed amount in August 2022, according to Deadline.